Smart presents winning Android applications at GSMA congress

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc. expanded its horizons by showcasing the winners of the first-ever Smart Mobile Developer Competition at the Conexus Android showcase at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong last November. 

Following the success of the first-ever Smart Mobile Developer Conference Featuring Android and the Smart Mobile Developer Competition, the two winning teams of the competition were showcased together with 11 other representatives. 

The 11 other Android apps were representatives selected by Conexus Alliance members, including Far EasTone (Taiwan), KT Corp. (Korea), Indosat Tbk (Indonesia), NTT DoCoMo (Japan), StarHub (Singapore), and TrueMove (Thailand).

The two teams from Smart — GeoSpatial Solutions. Inc. and Blue Chip Design Inc. — had the rare opportunity to exchange ideas and skills with fellow developers from other countries and interact with mobile operators from other countries, as well as the international mobile community and technology journalists. 

GeoSpatial Solutions, Inc.’s Android application is called DisasterALERT! which allows users to gather real-time information on local disasters and emergencies in their location, including the ability to view affected areas and the creation of community-based digital disaster response centers. 

“Our main inspiration was the recent typhoon and flooding in the Philippines,” said Gabriel Ricalde, a member of GeoSpatial Solutions team. “We saw the need of having a tool which can improve disaster response.”

Ricalde, together with Diane Kristine Campos, represented GeoSpatial Solutions.

Blue Chip Design’s Noel Patron said, “The competition is not just a programming contest, but also a battle of ideas. When creating a real-world application, it is better to solve a simple problem but solve it well, rather than be ambitious (and) come up with an incomplete solution.” 

Team members Anna Veronica Baterina and Jovylyn Therese Fajardo agreed. Blue Chip Design’s Android application is called the Remote Droid, which enables the user to remotely access their handset from another location. They can send SMS messages, get contact information, and even the location of the phone.

Smart’s VAS and data services head Jerome Almirante is proud that Smart represented the country in Hong Kong. 

“Attending the congress together with our two groups was an eye-opener. Developers from different countries were able to showcase a wide range of useful and novel applications,” Almirante said.

“This goes to show that Android can be useful not just for social networking, entertainment and messaging but for education and disaster response as well,” he added.

Smart aspires not just to provide local mobile developers with the latest information and newest technologies and ideas, but also to allow them to interact with experts on the field and be recognized as part of the ongoing innovation that Smart brings.

Established in April 2006, Conexus Mobile Alliance is one of Asia’s largest mobile alliances. It was formed to develop and enhance international roaming and corporate mobile services for greater convenience and ease of use for its members’ customers.

The alliance is committed to promoting voice, video and data roaming via its members’ GSM/GPRS, W-CDMA networks and/or HSDPA networks and aims to create a Virtual Home Environment for its member customers to experience seamless, convenient mobile-related services when they roam.

The alliance boasts a combined customer base of more than 240 million mobile subscribers.

Android is an Internet-style innovation and openness to mobile phones that was developed by the Open Handset Alliance, an association of various mobile phone operators, handset manufacturers, and semiconductor companies around the world.

Android delivers a complete set of software — operating system, middleware, and key mobile applications — for mobile devices.